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First Royalty Cheque For Pentecost

OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn

So I have shared the entire journey of Pentecost with the readers of this blog, and I have tried to be transparent along the way. I have shared the triumphs and also the difficult times in the hope that we can learn together. You can read/skim the entire journey here => First Novel.

Yesterday was very exciting because I received my first royalty cheque from Amazon since Pentecost was released on Feb 7th. They have payment terms of 90 days and pay by cheque to people outside the US for Amazon.com sales (which I have had a lot of questions about lately). So to round off the story, I thought I should share it with you in the spirit of honesty. Here it is.

I think there's a lot of smoke and mirrors in the publishing world. People are secretive and keep things behind closed doors which can skew our perception of reality. Joe Konrath shares his numbers and encourages us all, so I'm sharing my (far more modest) sales in order to show you it can be done on a smaller scale. This cheque is a representation of a level of publishing success – very small, but for a new author with a first novel, it's encouraging to me. I will make my costs back within a couple of months and then we're into the happy times!

I sold 578 books on Amazon between February 7 – 28 and the total sales = US$1003.06 and GBP33.90. Because of the with-holding tax from the US Kindle store as I'm not a US tax-payer, I received a cheque for $702.14. The GBP royalties aren't enough to warrant a cheque yet! (They have a threshold of $100 before payouts) No, this is not going to pay a mortgage but it will pay a couple of weeks rent and is not insignificant for a first month.

The exciting thing is that Pentecost continues to improve sales and ranking, so although I have lowered my price to 99 cents, the sales numbers are going up (as above).

I'll forfeit the higher price for this first book and the next one in the series, Prophecy, will be back at $2.99 so the cheques will get bigger again after December. As I write this, Pentecost is at #277 overall in the Kindle store, #2 in Religious Fiction and #12 in Action/Adventure.

It's also exciting to see my future as a pro-writer, blogger and speaker slowly coming more into focus. I fully intend to make it my full-time living in the next few years and move out of the day job. A few more books will mean the cheques will get bigger. I can aim for the success of Konrath, Hocking and Locke – and so can you!

Tags: royalty
Joanna Penn:

View Comments (58)

  • Thank you for sharing this! Yes, it's certainly encouraging, but I also found it grounding. My inner grump said: "Yes, smart arse, you still have to wait three months for the royalties. Dial the expectations of instant fiduciary reward back a tad, okay?"

    But regardless: Congratulations, Joanna! That's a great piece of news! :D

  • Congratulations, Joanna, that is so fantastic! For a new author with a first novel these figures are brilliant. Imagine having 6 or 7 books out there. The average sale numbers of them will be larger then, I guess. That really could make a living. That is absolutely encouraging as I have the same aim that you have. But until now I have only written short stories and just started to plan my first novel, so I am at the absolute beginning of the journey.
    Thanks so much for your honesty and all the information!

    All the best with Pendecost and Prophecy and may your dream come true!
    Kerstin

    • Exactly Kerstin - I need at least 5 more books and then I will have a more viable income - it's exciting that I can actually see that happening. I understand the process - now I just need to do the work :)

  • Congratulations! Nicely done, Joanna. Thank you for your transparency in sharing this. And thanks, too, for all that you do via your blog and videos/podcasts for us "indies."

    Much success as you go forward with your dream to write full time.

    • I'm glad you enjoy the site Andy - I love sharing the journey with other writers.

  • The world is shaking beneath the feet of the traditional publishers. This is an incredible success story for a first novel - your first cheque is well-deserved. It's great to feel a part of this self-publishing community and your honesty helps us all. I've just worked out that your book is selling at least one copy every hour!

    • ooh, that is exciting :) John Locke sells one every 10 seconds I think - which is a great aim! The numbers will only go up over time - now the Kindle is selling in Walmart, sales should be massively boosted!

      • Here in Germany you can buy the Kindle since the 21st of April - three weeks now. Perhaps this will increase numbers, too, but I don't know how many people will buy english books.
        I hope I'll get my Kindle in June as a birthday present. If not, I'll buy it myself. The first book I will buy will be Pentecost. Can't wait to read it.

  • Congrats and thank you so much for sharing your writing success -- very happy for you and it's inspiring to other writers.

    Interesting tidbit about changing the price -- are those who initially payed the higher price annoyed to see it go down to $.99?

      • actually, publishers play with prices all the time, right? Hardback, then discounted hardback, then remainder table ... then paperback, then 3 for 2 special etc.... I think we are all used to changing prices.

  • Wow. That must be so exciting for you. I have been considering publishing my first novel which I am finishing up as an ebook so it's encouraging to me to see someone else who has done it and has seen some tangible results.

  • Although my personal interest is more in business and non-fictional writing than fiction writing, what you have achieved is simply amazing and is further proof that most traditional publishers will be put out of business within this decade unless they get a wake-up call. It also shows that, thanks to non-traditionalists like Amazon and Smashwords, independent authors and writers need not depend or worry about what traditional publishers think anymore.

    The idea of a .99 book that can make hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars a month without any involvement from traditional publishers has got to scare them.

    Thanks for being an inspiration to me and so many people.

    • Thanks Matthew - I am trying to pass on the inspiration that I get from Hocking, Konrath, Locke, Winters and others - it's an exciting world right now!

  • Well done, Joanna. And you'll soon have the withheld tax back, I presume, so you can hand it to the ATO before you leave our shores :-)

  • Many congratulations, Joanna - though it was a long wait for payment! I hope Pentecost continues to sell well and the cheques keep rolling in!

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